Shopping!

Man, and I thought the grocery situation was difficult. This weekend's challenge was to buy miscellaneous necessities, including desk, chair, mobile, and other bits and pieces. Fortunately for me, there were lots of other people in the same boat, particularly the internationals, so there were some shopping excursions organised, one through the International Centre (center?) and one through La Aldea (the graduate residence block where I'm staying). The general gist is that a couple of kind people consent to drive a van full of clueless new arrivals to one of the local malls, and then collects us an hour or so later.

Saturday's trip was all internationals, and we were very limited both in times and what we could bring back in the van, but it was a good opportunity to meet a few people. I ended up shopping with an English girl, Charlie, who'd spent some time in Sydney. We bonded over trying to work out the american names for basic things, and the lack of greenbags, and random stuff like that. I bought bedding and kitchen-type stuff, and I officially hate Wal-Mart.

Later that afternoon Charlie and a couple of other girls at La Aldea (Sally from Egypt and 2 Americans, Alia and Dana) invited me along for more shopping at walking distance, down on 4th Ave. It's a weird little area, full of those sort of new-age/fake hippie shops that are filled with incense, Bob Marley t-shirts and huge, coloured glass water pipes. We did, however, find a great little organic grocery place (Food Conspiracy Coop - I LOVE the name!) with locally grown stuff, pretty comparable prices to the more mainstream one I went to on Friday, and MUCH better quality produce. Now I just need to find an organic butcher and I'll be set! Oh and they give you credit for bringing your own bags - I'm wishing I'd brought some greenbags with me, but I'm making do with my UQ library bag instead for the moment. (Thanks Chris!)

Sunday was a shuttle bus trip to Target from La Aldea, which was much more profitable than nasty Wal-Mart the day before. I got almost everything else that I needed, including a flatpack desk for $60 - but no chair yet. Charlie and I shopped together again, because we'd been discussing the desk problem, and that made it easier for us to manhandle the damn things as well. The downside? Damn desk requires a 2" Philipshead to assemble! You would think that would be mentioned on the box somewhere, wouldn't you? Grrr... I have been spoilt by the Age of Ikea, and the ubiquitous Allen key, I suppose.

The one big frustration I'm having is in trying to buy a decent mobile phone. I know the phone I want, and the provider - but I haven't found it in any of the places I've been, and I can't even order it online because my credit card has an Australian billing address, and their website isn't set up for that! It's a pain, because I'm meeting all these people, and there are opportunities to go out and explore the city, but I really need a phone to be readily contactable. So... more Grr.

Oh well. There's a "social event" here in the building tonight, which sounds naff I know, but it's a chance to meet people again, plus - free ice-cream!